OurJesusJourney goes to Lake Erie (NY)

July 2018

OurJesusJourney goes to Lake Erie State Park, NY

After our time spent in the D.C. area, we headed on to NY and Lake Erie State Park. Little did we know then that this stop was the beginning of a long and wonderful time spent in New York State, where we would be making many new lifelong friends!

We were blessed by Metropolitan Baptist Church in D.C. with 2 weeks of camping in a campground of our choice. God led us to L.E.S.P. We made our reservation and headed out across Pennsylvania to the far West side of New York state. The drive alone was a “hairy” one. Anyone who has traveled across PA knows that it is full of mountains and rain. We travelled through some terribly windy, rainy weather! We left DC very late due to a repair we had to do to the trailer and lights, meaning we were going to be arriving at L.E.S.P early the next morning. I (Erin) prayed before leaving for provision to be able to stop and sleep somewhere, because night driving is very hard on Matt and especially in bad weather. Well, on the way out of town, we stopped and Matt was looking under the hood of the Suburban. A man came out and spoke to him and by the end of the conversation he handed him $40! Enough to get a simple hotel room for rest. We also found out the next morning that there was a toronado that touched down right where we would have been driving the night before! God is SO GOOD!!!

Well, we made it to L.E.S.P. the next day, rested….We arrived and set up camp, which always takes HOURS! It is an ordeal and production for sure! But just the same, we got it set up and were ready for our stay there for the next 2 weeks.

While we were at the park, we met an awesome family, the Fredericks, Andrew and Brittany, as well as their kiddos, Matthew, Chloe and Adam. They were a wonderful family whose outdoor goods almost got carried away in the rain, so we ran over and put them away for them, because they weren’t around at the time. From there, Maddy became fast friends with little Chloe. They played every chance they got and were disappointed when we had to part ways. We still talk from time to time and are looking forward to when we make it to their Ohio city so we can visit with them again!

Another “adventure” at Lake Erie was Nemo’s drone flight….He loved to take pictures of the Lake and the beautiful sunsets with his little drone. One night, he and Matt went out to do just that closer to the Lake. Zeke and I looked off in the distance from the campsite and saw a tiny flashing light. I asked him if he thought that was the drone. He said it looked like it and we wondered why Nemo was flying it so far away. Little did we know!!! It had lost its connection with the remote and that caused it to fly away…far FAR AWAY. Needless to say, that drone was gone and done for, regardless of our attempt the next day hopefully find it on the banks. Nope! It was a goner! Ah well! At least he got some awesome pictures before that of the sunset and the campsite.

We visited a couple of churches in the area, Lake Erie Baptist and Christ Community Church. Lake Erie’s pastor and his family were very kind to us! They invited us for the 4th of July, where they had a paddle boat that the kids (and Matt) loved! They loved on us very well! And Christ Community Church let us stay on and in their property for a little less than a week. We got to use the kitchen, cooking pizzas and other meals that we couldn’t normally make while we would be camping. We made friends with Bill Stroup and his family….they had us over for some AWESOME Curry Chicken! SO GOOD!!!

Our last day in the Lake Erie area was a Thursday….THE Thursday we had told the church we would be heading out. However, we had NO IDEA where to go. And not for a lack of prayer and seeking. But, we continued to pack it in and load it up. By time we got it all packed up, Matt felt God had given us our heading.  We were gonna go to Rochester, NY. We had met Tom and Laura Young while in the area and they were from Rochester. They said if we were gonna go that way, let them know! Well, that was where God sent us, unbeknownst to us ahead of time. Little did we know what God had in store when we got there!